Mastering Blockchain, Fourth Edition - Fourth Edition

4

Asymmetric Cryptography

In this chapter, you will be introduced to the concepts and practical aspects of public key cryptography, also called asymmetric cryptography or asymmetric key cryptography. We will start with the theoretical foundations of public key cryptography and will gradually build on the concepts, with relevant practical exercises with OpenSSL. Please refer to the previous chapter for an OpenSSL installation guide, if you have not already. After this, we will introduce some new and advanced cryptography constructs.

Along the way, we will discuss the following topics:

• Foundational mathematics
• Asymmetric cryptography
• Introducing RSA
• Introducing elliptic curve cryptography (ECC)
• Digital signatures
• Cryptographic constructs and ...